The Proposal of the Tortoise and the Hare
by SamCyberCat
Summary: After having been in a relationship with Kay for such a long while, Edgeworth was finally wondering how to go about proposing to her. Edgeworth/Kay.


Notes – A kinkmeme fill done for a prompt that wanted a marriage proposal between Edgeworth and Kay. Set quite a lot of years post-AAI, probably in the AJ timeline. This pairing is outside of the sort of thing that I'd usually write, but I wanted to try something different. If you don't like Kay or Edgeworth/Kay please don't comment to flame, thank you.

* * *

The day that Edgeworth finally decided to go through with what he had planned was far too late. But then everything about Edgeworth and relationships had always fallen into that category.

When he had first met Kay his feelings towards her had been nothing more than that of a working relationship between two people brought together out of circumstance. But over time her presence had become almost as much of a constant fixture in his life as that of Detective Gumshoe.

The days turned into years and soon enough Kay was no longer an excitable young girl anymore, but a woman, albeit still one who placed a great deal of child-like enjoyment towards the mysteries that the three of them solved together. He wasn't sure at what point he'd begun to find this endearing, but the more time went on the more clear it became to him that he did.

So, just like with the looming proposal, he had eventually come to ask her out at a time that was probably far too late. He was formal about it and she had been cheerfully informal in her response, but he'd expected nothing less. The important thing was that she had agreed. She had wanted to be with him that way. The age gap between them seemed like much less of a problem now that they were older and neither of them seemed to care about it.

To begin with, Edgeworth actually thought he'd made a mistake. Because Kay's nature towards him hadn't changed very much – she was still friendly, cheerful and eager just as she had been when they were friends, so Edgeworth wondered if the relationship made any difference to her.

It was only over time that he'd truly noted the changes – hugs that lasted more than a moment, their conversations littered with more playful banter than it had been before, and little kisses on the cheek at times when it wouldn't be embarrassing for Edgeworth.

This was when he'd started to feel the relationship was working.

Somehow, the discussion of the proposal had come up around Gumshoe, leading to him shedding some light on why it had taken so long for their budding romance to get off the ground.

"It took everyone by surprise, Mr. Edgeworth," he was saying, "And I think this is going to take everyone by surprise too. But you've been waiting around long enough. It's like I said to Kay when you first started dating her – You're a guy who likes to take things slow."

"You gave her dating advice?" Edgeworth said, in disbelief.

"Well of course! I know you better than most people, um, maybe. And you like things to be the same. So I said you'd probably be put off if she was too forward with you," Gumshoe replied.

Always honest and always spoke his mind. That could be both a good trait and a bad one with Gumshoe.

Though Edgeworth had to admit that in this situation he was probably right and was glad that Kay hadn't been more direct to start with.

"But you could have been more forward yourself, sir," Gumshoe tried to slyly put in.

Snorting, Edgeworth responded, "I do not require relationship advice from you either, detective."

"All right, all right. But she was still the one doing all the mushy stuff. I guess mush isn't really you though, is it?" said Gumshoe.

"Certainly not," Edgeworth answered, "Though I shall have to work with a great deal of… romance for what I plan to be successful."

"Just don't put it off any longer, Mr. Edgeworth, we've all been waiting long enough," Gumshoe laughed.

It was one of those rare occasions when Edgeworth left a conversation feeling that he'd actually lost a debate with Gumshoe.

But if the man was right there was no way around it. He had waited a long time; the 'great thief' was such a fast paced person who didn't really stand around for anything. But she'd waited for him. That was why he'd planned for this to be as perfect as possible.

It hadn't been the proposal he'd probably seen himself having in the back of his mind when he was much younger and any potential bride he'd considered was a faceless image – there was no expensive restaurant involved to begin with. Edgeworth had learned early into their relationship that Kay found that sort of thing dull, even if she didn't say so, and honestly he'd had too many meals with co-workers at such places to truly associate them with romance either.

Because of that he'd somehow landed on Gatewater Land as being the ideal place. It was a funfair and Kay still enjoyed them even if they weren't exactly his kind of entertainment. Besides that it was the place they'd first met, which probably had some sort of significance.

So after a day of running around taking photos of people in badger costumes, pretending to be part of the wild west, watching dolphins jump through hoops and finishing off with a live performance from someone Edgeworth gathered to be Valant Gramarye, the last of the Troupe Gramarye, the two of them were settling down to get ready to leave.

Night had fallen by this point and with the stuffed teddies that Kay was carrying in her arms it was almost had to believe they weren't two kids on their first date instead of a man planning to ask his long time partner to marry him. He still couldn't believe Kay had talked him into having a go on the coconut shy to win the bears in the first place. He'd have felt foolish if anyone who knew him had seen.

Speaking of feeling foolish, he felt himself draw his walking to a halt.

It took Kay several moments to notice he wasn't there before she turned to look back at him.

"You okay?" she asked, walking towards him.

"Y-yes, just wondering how to go about this…" he muttered.

"Go about what?"

He got onto his knee. There had been no planning about it. The whole day had been planned and somehow still left not an opportunity for him to ask, so now he was going to fall back on a method he usually avoided and just be impulsive.

As he took the box out of his pocket and opened it he noted her eyes widen in genuine surprise, he sort of liked the way she looked shocked.

"Kay Faraday…" he began, swallowing a lump in his throat, "…would you do me the honour of becoming my wife?"

She gasped.

Teddies dropped to the floor.

There was a moment where nothing moved.

She was…

She was going to laugh, wasn't she?

But Kay did not laugh at all.

She launched herself at Edgeworth, arms wrapping tightly around him; the force of this knocked him back from his kneeling position; and it turned out that he was the one who started laughing. Such a rare noise.

"So, should I assume that you would like to?" he asked, after having composed himself.

Kay nodded quickly.

"Yes, of course I would," she replied, trying not to laugh herself, "I really didn't think you'd ask."

"Well, I didn't want to rush things," he mumbled, helping her up from where they'd both fall.

"Gummy said so too, he said it'd probably be quicker if I asked you," Kay said after getting to her feet.

"You were… planning on proposing to me?" he asked.

She winked at him cheekily.

"You got there first," was the only answer he received.

He felt his face flush in embarrassment. After Gumshoe had encouraged him to go through with it he had been telling her to do the same? He was going to have strict words with the detective later.

But right now he felt too pleased for strict words. He felt as happy as anyone should do after their partner had agreed to such a big step forward.

And he didn't have much time to think about what else he felt because Kay had gripped his arm and was tugging it.

"Come on, there's still time before the park closes and lots to do," she called.

Lots to do and so little time.

But after taking so long to get here, Edgeworth didn't mind feeling a little rushed for a change.


End file.
